Zaygo

Strong opinions held loosely. Admirer of lone trees. Building Safe Water Iowa. Go Hawks.

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

🗣️ Credit card fees should be illegal 🗣️

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

I want the Knicks to lose in the most painful way imaginable

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

@I35V2 @shagbark_hick Your last sentence is so true. There is no change or “new” that won’t be met with outright hostility

[Tim Carney @TPCarney]

It's the phones.
It's the phones for a hundred reasons. Here are a few:
1) Male consumption of porn reduces marriage (for like 10 reasons)
2) Because of time-wasting college kids and 20-somethings just socialize less, reducing marriage.
3) The dating apps ruin dating (for 10 reasons)
4) Social media gives us a false anthropology, which makes us too individualistic and too averse to connection and commitment.
5) The phones make us sad and make us hate ourselves. If we hate ourselves we don't want more of us.

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

Today, I overheard some early 20 year old in a knitted vest:

“Every time the US gets involved in something it just always goes badly.”

Then he walked into a neighborhood co-op that had 3 pride flags hanging in the window.

[Voices of WW2 @VoicesofWW2]

D-Day: Invasion of Normandy [Real Footage in Colour]

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

Healthcare:

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

There’s certainly not anywhere that is a significant population center — not already for the entirety of the year. Historically, many times in the dead of winter levels can get down to less than 2mg/L.

We have quite a bit of info and a reverse osmosis solution at https://t.co/VrwzTWhGhM

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

Went in 2024 when still on reservation. I felt like there was an appropriate amount of people around, even on popular hikes.

The reserve system doesn’t only cap numbers, it also acts as a natural filter for people that genuinely want to appreciate this beautiful place.

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

It’s chaos in Yosemite National Park

This is the first summer since Yosemite stopped using their reservation system

There have been almost 100,000 more visitors than this time last year

It’s so crowded the lines of cards are hours long and people are parking illegally in the meadows that are supposed to be protected

“The line of cars goes on and on and on, all waiting to get into Yosemite National Park. People were waiting for like at least hour and a half and once you're inside, the waiting isn't over”

By 7.30 am parking can already be at capacity

“The entire park, it was impossible to park. There's nowhere to park for anybody. Waiting to find parking, waiting to get on the shuttle — With many getting impatient and just illegally parking wherever they could. There are people pulling onto meadows, pulling off pavement, going off-road”

“Environmental Resource Center says it was at least better than this. Without any limits the amount of vehicles, amount of people, it becomes overwhelmed. He believes the decision was good for business, not for the environment”

You can’t even take the shuttles they’re so packed, I found:

Shuttles are overwhelmed, trails including Half Dome cables are jammed, and congestion is constant. Park staff and environmental groups say it’s harming sensitive meadows and wildlife habitat

There is no daily cap on vehicles during peak summer hours

Many park employees, over 300 signed a petition, environmental groups, and former staff criticize the decision as prioritizing crowds over visitor experience

Go back to a strict reservation system. There are way too many people

[Spencer @KalanisCalves]

This is what our society fails to comprehend.

If I work as a physical therapist, and I’m good, I’ll make $100,000/yr. And pay $15,000 in taxes. I can see 60 patients per week. But that’s the end of it. No additional tax money, no more patients can get my services. I provide a living for myself and my family.

If I own a practice and employee 10 therapists that each make $100,000, now I’m providing a living for 10 families, and because of my efforts there is now $250,000 in tax revenue.

So why should businesses get taxed more? Why should they even have to pay payroll taxes? My value to society is way more than 10X at this point.

But the vast majority of Americans can’t comprehend that, neither do our congressional representatives.

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

@J_Turnbow @TheSalonDon Nice! What volume were you at when you engaged in that conversation?

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

@J_Turnbow @TheSalonDon Did you negotiate that down or on some sort of legacy pricing? Jane is 2.85% + $0.25 swipe for online transactions. (Also Jane user).

[Lee (Greater) @shortmagsmle]

My wife gets nervous taking our kids to the park because sometimes there are unaccountable billionaires sleeping in the bushes, prone to getting pushy or acting dangerously as they avoid paying their fair share in broad daylight while the police do nothing

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

No other major restaurant brand has the opportunity to capitalize on the nostalgia factor more than Applebees.

I actually went inside to eat at one last night. Other than the obnoxious drink menu (fix #1) and little table things on the table (maybe fix #2) everything about it felt like a time capsule to the early 2000s.

And they’ve managed to keep things relatively inexpensive through all these years.

If this trend does take off, Applebees will be a huge winner because they won’t have to invest hardly anything.

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

TVs are my favorite example of what happens when ubiquitous products are allowed to operate in an almost completely free market (minimal regulation) that also has nothing subsidizing their purchases. (ie: government funds)

[Jum @JesterJum]

While the price of virtually everything else skyrockets, the price of TVs remain weirdly low.

Its almost like they don't want to price people out of the ability to be distracted, manipulated, and controlled.

Anyone else notice that? Or is it just me?

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

And also most the produce—while higher quality than the grocery store—isn’t actually grown by the people selling it. It’s being bought from a big regional grower and resold under “XYZ Farms & Produce”

Which is like, fine, I guess but it does feel a bit disingenuous

[Allie ✞ @allie__voss]

One thing that needs to be studied is how “farmer’s market” used to mean “farmer’s market”

…and now it means “open-air pop-up shop with laser cut wood signs, 3D-printed fidget toys, and some lady bedazzling Stanley tumblers

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

One’s opinion on food deserts is a great litmus test — especially if they’re passionate

[Crémieux @cremieuxrecueil]

"Food deserts" are an example of social scientists getting causality backwards

They saw poor people eating unhealthy foods and blamed local supply

They should have blamed demand!

Using data from 13 years of supermarket entries, there's basically no effects on healthy eating🧵

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

In 15 years you’ll be able to take this exact picture and not have a single issue with it.

Trees take time to grow.

[Simon Sarris @simonsarris]

The landscape is lifeless. Makes it all feel "temporary", visitor in your own life.

Nothing for you to see, no work for you. Sitting at table not that different from sitting at it outside of Home Depot. No privacy from neighbors or sun. Plastic = temporary too.

It's fixable.

[Troy Frasier AKA Revived Studios @RevivedThoughts]

The amount of self-hate Americans have towards their own history is truly unreal.

They defeated slavery by fighting against their own family.
They shut Europe out of the western hemisphere so that nations wouldn't live under colonization forever.
They had the ability to stay out of world war 1 but they went and died to help Europeans.
They had the ultimate power in the nuclear bomb. They also had access to all of Europe's colonies that were in shambles. But instead they promoted freedom. They rebuilt Japan and Germany after defeating them in war. They stood down the Soviet Union, even as the world jeered them.
They sent soldiers to places like Vietnam and Afghanistan that died TRYING to create a better world (even if you disagree with those wars, the intentions were fairly good)
And they sent more missionaries to the world than maybe any other country in history. Translated more Bibles into indigenous languages than any other country in history. Ran bigger charities than any other country in history. Created more Christian resources than any other country in history.

Whether it was stopping the Dutch from reconquering Indonesia to the Berlin Airlift to giving Cuba its freedom in the Spanish-American war to saving China from the Japanese America has at least ATTEMPTED to do good with its power.

Yes yes, America has problems. People are imperfect. But goodness gracious does the world have a lot to be grateful for in America. And when we could have taken SO much from the world we have often chosen not to. Rome, Britain, Mongols, Assyrians, Soviets, Chinese, no other group has ever shown the restraint America has consistently shown with such vast power at its fingertips.

We didn't even get into the GIGANTIC technological advances, consumer advances, convenient lifestyle changes America has pioneered. From electricity to space to the light bulb to the smart phone to many cures in medicine and agriculture to the airplane the world has been enormously blessed by America.

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

Great thread. I’ve often wondered this after watching TVs in som places encounter the “too many active streams” messages in the middle of the game.

Another streaming problem is the variation in latency—a few seconds across TVs & audo makes watching a game in public a poor experience. I assume these commercial solutions ensure everything is synced up exactly as well?

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

LeBron dyed his beard for the playoffs. 🫣

[Zaygo @zaygorams]

And so begins the best sporting event of the modern era:

LeBron James shouldering the load for a playoff series.